Global Pulse: Environment Archives

Category: Environment

Westerners Challenge 'Yummy' Dolphin Meat

10 Nov 2007 @ 00:30 GMT | Permalink | Comments

The gruesome slaughter of dolphins takes place every year. But only recently the Western media began taking notice. And those who want to protect dolphins and whales are just now exploring a new strategy--informing the Japanese people.

The Sydney Morning Herald today tells a story about how dolphins are scared into a tiny cove in Taiji, Japan, and then killed by drowning them. Nigel Barker, who documented the slaughter, describes a horrific death scene as the dolphins drown.

Bottled Water Becomes Target of Environmentalists

09 Nov 2007 @ 00:14 GMT | Permalink | Comments

In just two decades, bottled water has gone from healthful to sinful. And it may soon be relegated to snake oil if consumers wake up to a bitter taste of environmental destruction.

Fiji Water, a trendy choice for capricious celebrities, is tackling climate change and perhaps pre-empting a boycott with comprehensive plans to become "carbon negative." That would, theoretically, reduce its environmental footprint, including greenhouse gas emissions, beyond carbon neutral.

[It is nearly impossible to replenish what has already been taken from the environment. Companies claim "credits" or "carbon credits" by tallying the normative harm they caused and, say, by planting trees elsewhere to make up the for the difference.]

The company's announcement in Los Angeles Wednesday coincided with a New York Times article that makes a case for both the bottled water industry and its detractors.

Michael Brune of the Rainforest Action Network tells The Times:

Bottled water is a business that is fundamentally, inherently and inalterably unconscionable. No side deals to protect forests or combat global warming can offset that reality.

Glenn Prickett of Conservation International sums up the reality this way:

Maybe it would be morally preferable to carry a bottle I filled at the tap, but bottled water is a consumer reality. So rather than operate in a moralistic framework, we’ll use the economy as it exists to make a difference.

But the reality is far worse than Mr. Prickett's view of bottled water economics.

Take BlingH20, for example. Their US$40 bottled water comes in "Limited Edition, corked 750ml, frosted glass bottles, exquisitely handcrafted with Swarovski Crystals."

And there's a market for it. A huge one. The MTV Video Music Awards and the Emmys are just two events that featured BlingH20.

The brutally honest company points out that image-conscious Hollywood celebs flaunt their bottled water. BlingH20 targets the "expanding super-luxury consumer market," it says.

Similarly, self-styled "water sommelier" Michael Mascha has made a new career out of elevating the status of water which, like wine, should be paired with many different dishes.

Mr. Mascha says his own Web site, FineWaters, filled a void for fine water connoisseurs and distributors. He turned to water when he his health condition no longer allowed wine.

Niche-market water is not the only target of protests. Coca-Cola, which makes Dasani, and Pepsi Cola, which makes Aquafina, are being hounded for what some see as theft of municipal water. Both brands are nothing more than purified tap water although some contain flavoring.

"Think Outside the Bottle" campaign, by Corporate Accountability International, is aimed squarely at Coke, Pepsi and Nestlé for "privatizing our water." They say 17 million barrels of oil, enough to fuel a million cars for a year, were used to meet Americans' annual demand for bottled water. In the process, 2.5 million tons of Carbon dioxide were released into the atmosphere.

The backlash against bottled water is growing. Corporate Accountability has held rallies in Seattle, Baltimore and other cities.

And potentially, warns the Branding Blog, the US$15 billion market could come crashing down. Why?

Younger, healthier, environmentally savvy consumers are the heaviest consumers of the product: the very people most likely to be concerned about the environment and to act accordingly are the ones drinking bottled water in the first place.

Posted by Dayhawk Kim at 00:14 | Permalink | Comments (0)
TAGGED: Shortage | Water

Wanted: Crab Louse for Dutch Museum

25 Oct 2007 @ 16:48 GMT | Permalink | Comments

"Till today, not a single pubic louse reached the museum," the Rotterdam Natural History Museum wrote in a press release. The statement confirms an AP story about its fruitless effort thus far to add a single crab louse to its collection.

In October 2006, Kees Moeliker, curator of the museum, made an urgent appeal to the public for one dead crab louse. He has had no luck so far, curator Kees Moeliker tells The Associated Press.

In his original appeal, published in the Dutch monthly "Nieuw (New) Rotterdam," Mr. Moeliker blames the destruction of lice habitat--by way of pubic hair removal--for the disappearance of Phthirus pubis, the crab louse. He and Dr. Armstrong, at the General Infirmary at Leeds, point to the Brazilian and other types of pubic hair removal procedures for the increasingly rare occurrence of crabs.

Mr. Moeliker kindly asks donors to send only dead specimens preserved in 70 percent alcohol along with the name, age, sex, location of the donor and the name of the collector, if different. He has repeatedly guaranteed anonymity of the donor.

Samples may be sent to:

Natuurhistorisch Museum Rotterdam
c/o Kees Moeliker
Westzeedijk 345 (Musempark)
3015 AA Rotterdam
The Netherlands

(Not in the Netherlands? Please, check with your local and Dutch authorities about shipping dead lice samples across international borders.)

Not all may be lost if the museum is unable to hunt down a crab louse. It turns out gorillas gave pubic lice to humans although obtaining a sample from them may be harder. The genetic lineage of pubic lice was published in BMC Biology earlier this year.

But they were unable to answer this mind-boggling question: How did the gorilla give pubic lice, which often spreads via sexual contact, to humans?

El Niño: Colombia Faces Water Shortage

02 Oct 2006 @ 15:44 GMT | Permalink | Comments

Valle del Cauca Department, on Colombia's western coast, is likely to face a shortage of water as well as electricity, as the El Niño phenomenon intensifies in the coming months, the Independent Regional Corporation of the Cauca Valley [CVC] said.

In the U.S., NOAA has confirmed the start of a weak El Niño, which characterizes a shift in ocean-atmosphere system and starts with the warming of the ocean surface in the equatorial Pacific. El Niño can disrupt the weather worldwide and impact certain countries economically.

As for Colombia, the C.V.C. is warning that there could be critical supply shortage. Water is being rationed in some parts of the province, and further cuts are expected.

Panama Canal (Expansion): Whose Is It?

27 Sep 2006 @ 10:14 GMT | Permalink | Comments (5)

Photo of a Container Ship in the Panama Canal

The Panama Canal Authority and the Panamanian government say the expansion will create 250,000 jobs by 2025 and make the country rich. Opponents say the government is lying.

The Canal may be a source of pride for Panamanians, but it is of little benefit to ordinary citizens. Money trails and tentacles of foreign interests are more twisted than plots in John le Carré's "The Tailor of Panama."

In corrupt Panama, the upcoming October 22 referendum on expanding the Canal for bigger container ships has become a source of ruthless power plays that have escaped the attention of many media outlets.

Below are some starting points for delving deeper into the controversies surrounding the expansion.

Who Poisoned Côte d'Ivoire With Toxic Waste?

12 Sep 2006 @ 17:27 GMT | Permalink | Comments

Newspaper Photo of Ivorians Receiving Medicine for Toxic Waste Poisoning.

Abidjan has been consumed by toxic waste that has made thousands sick and killed several people. (Photo: Courtesy of Le Matin d'Abidjan)

Residents of Côte d'Ivoire's commercial capital Abidjan have become victims of corrupt companies that picked this West Africa port to be the dust bin for their toxic waste.

Thousands have become sick. Several people, including children, have died. And the environment has become permanently damaged. Who is responsible for this reprehensible act? That's harder to trace.

At least half-dozen companies in three continents are involved in this mess.

It all starts with "Probo Koala," a Panamanian-registered oil tanker that is staffed by Russian crew members, managed by Prime Marine Management Inc. in Greece and time-chartered by Dutch-Swiss commodity trader Trafigura Beheer B.V.

Phulbari Coal: Wham! Bam! Thank You Ma'am

28 Aug 2006 @ 15:59 GMT | Permalink | Comments

In Phulbari, Bangladesh, an international firm will develop an open-pit coal mine with the government's blessings. The development will force 40,000 residents to relocate -- the largest of its kind in country.

The company chalks it up as part of the "development cycle in any developing country." Is it?

Residents and some politicians are demanding the company to leave the country and asking the government to withdraw the permit for the coal mine.

Their efforts are unlikely to pay off because resistance will likely be futile.

Britain's Dirty Big Secret

26 Aug 2006 @ 12:18 GMT | Permalink | Comments

60 million rats are infesting the U.K., as Britons make it a habit to litter on the streets.

Britons' habit of throwing food on the streets has reportedly created a bigger, stronger, longer-living breed of "Super Rats" that are overrunning the country. Between 1998 and 2004, the estimated rat population has swelled 26 percent to 60 million, or one for every U.K. resident.

The increase coincides with a rise in binge drinkers who raid fast-food stores at night and toss leftover containers on the street, according to a British charity campaigning to "Keep Britain Tidy."

(If these rats are anything like mice, who are in fact 'hyper-intelligent, pan-dimensional beings that created Earth,' they could force the collapse of Tony Blair's scandal-plagued government.)

Extreme Weather: Snow in South Africa

04 Aug 2006 @ 07:33 GMT | Permalink | Comments

A heat wave grips much of the eastern U.S. seaboard, while snow-covered homeless struggle in South Africa.

South Africans are facing extreme conditions as the weather service is warning of more heavy snowfalls, flash floods and gale-force winds across much of the country.

Who decided to hold the 2010 World Cup during a South African winter?

Tens of millions across the world are suffering from weird weather phenomena. A deadly heat wave has turned much of the eastern U.S. seaboard into a sweltering jungle, while southern China is bracing for a typhoon to make landfall.

Here are more extreme weather conditions around the world.

Water: Australia Running Dry

28 Jul 2006 @ 09:16 GMT | Permalink | Comments (2)

Photo of Cracked Earth in Algeria (UNESCO)

An Australian city will be completely out of water in four months. Another is looking into recycled sewage water. Politicians have largely ignored the issue and admit in private that they are scared to lose their jobs for supporting recycled sewage water.

Only 0.01 percent of 1.4 billion cubic kilometers of water on the planet is easily accessible. And even that is dwindling.

When resources are scarce, ignorant people fight over it. Opportunists profit from the shortage. And both are happening right now.

Measuring Global Happiness …

20 Jul 2006 @ 12:22 GMT | Permalink | Comments (1)

How do you measure global happiness?

If you go by Marcellus, who tells Horatio "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark," then you would have never guessed that Danes are the happiest people on Earth. That's according to Professor Ruut Veenhoven at Erasmus University in Rotterdam.

He is not alone in trying to quantify "happiness." The New Economics Foundation, in Britain, has relied on the professor's "happy life years" variable among others to create the "Happy Planet Index." High levels of consumption appears to be inversely related to the index, while island life makes the planet happier.

It is odd that Vanuatu, which is about to disappear, ranked No. 1 on the index.

Posted by Dayhawk Kim at 12:22 | Permalink | Comments (1)
TAGGED: Charts | Happiness | Stats

'Noah's Ark' for Seeds Launched

19 Jun 2006 @ 12:44 GMT | Permalink | Comments

In case of extinction, a "doomsday vault" for three million seeds will be built on Svalbard, a very cold island about 966 kilometres (604 miles) south of the North Pole. The seed vault will be guarded by polar bears.

Five Nordic prime ministers attended the ground-breaking ceremony today, three decades after the idea was born. Far from wars and not a terrorist favorite, the underground vault is supposed to preserve our crop diversity for hundreds of years.

Posted by Dayhawk Kim at 12:44 | Permalink | Comments (0)

For Bolivia, Socialism Is a Coca-Leaf Cake

16 Jun 2006 @ 14:41 GMT | Permalink | Comments

Evo Morales wants to give Fidel Castro a coca cake for his 80th birthday. What a friend!

What would you give Fidel Castro for his 80th birthday? "A cake made from coca leaves," said Bolivian President Evo Morales who wants to be just like "Che" Guevara.

Mr. Castro, who used to speak at Wagnerian length with a stogie in hand, is an aging man with signs of a degenerative neurological disease. And he won't make it to 140.

Posted by Dayhawk Kim at 14:41 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Spain's Black Marketeers Stealing Water

30 May 2006 @ 10:54 GMT | Permalink | Comments (1)

Black market water is a lucrative source of money in Spain, the WWF says. (Photo: NASA/Modis)

Black market dealers in Spain are draining the drought-prone country's scarce water supply through more than 510,000 illegal boreholes, the WWF's Global Freshwater Program said in a report. The stolen water is being used to irrigate surplus crops, keep golf courses green and supply tourist areas.

Posted by Dayhawk Kim at 10:54 | Permalink | Comments (1)

Malaria: Get Your ACT Together

20 Apr 2006 @ 11:03 GMT | Permalink | Comments

A cure for malaria is about to become very cheap, thanks to a Berkeley professor and his team of researchers. But 10 years is not going to be any time soon when someone, most likely a child, dies of malaria infection every 30 seconds. The World Health Organization [WHO] and its Roll Back Malaria partnership set April 25 as the "
Africa Malaria Day" to raise funds for Artemisinin-based Combination Therapy [ACT] that is more expensive than older anti-malarials, such as chloroquine, sulfadoxine–pyrimethamine [SP] and amodiaquine. But some African countries are still refusing to use ACT due to its cost.

Malaria infects 300 million to 500 million people every year.
At least one million and as many as 2.7 million, most of children in Sub-Saharan Africa, die from it each year.
Plasmodium falciparum is the deadliest of four parasites that cause malaria.
Most anti-malarials have been derived from ancient medicinal plants, such as sweet wormwood (4th Century China) and cinchona tree (17th Century South America).
The estimated financial burden on Africa from malaria is about US$12 billion annually.
Donations may be made to the U.N. Foundation's Malaria Fund.

Posted by Dayhawk Kim at 11:03 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Vanuatu: First "Climate Change Refugees"

07 Dec 2005 @ 16:43 GMT | Permalink | Comments

The tribal chief went first. And his people followed. They were the first "climate change refugees," who had to be relocated to a higher ground due to rising sea levels. The U.N. Environment Program said the move was the first of many relocations planned in the South Pacific where low-lying coastal areas are being devoured by soil erosion, higher sea levels and increasingly menacing storms.

Posted by Dayhawk Kim at 16:43 | Permalink | Comments (0)
TAGGED: Climate Change | Global Warming | Vanuatu

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